An End so Hateful
by BlackWolfOfTheTurks
Summary: Grim gets kidnapped by his nemesis, Boogey, who drags him down to the Underworld to end his life. Until a strange, human girl intervenes...
1. Chapter 1

Ever since he was a child, his life had been destroyed by him. He had ended up a tortured soul, forever mocked and hated. When he was in school, the boy bullied him into insanity. He mocked him and did his best to make his life hell (despite the fact that they lived in the Underworld itself). He poked fun at him in front of all the other kids, even the adults, and made him feel like a fool. He was made to believe that he was good for nothing, that he was simply an object of everyone's entertainment.

Even now, as an adult, he had suffered his cruelty. He had been forcefully imprisoned, stripped of his powers, had his beloved scythe taken away from him, and banished far away into a nightmarish realm...or would have been had he and his friends not managed to pull out of it.

The trauma never left him. He had become awfully sensitive, something of a crybaby, and he had become accustomed to slavery.

Yes, he'd lived his life as a slave...and now he had fallen into his clutches again.

It was night when it happened. He had been resting in Billy's bed, exhausted after an entire day of playing with the stupid boy and his sadistic 'girlfriend'. Enslaved though he was by them, he could never bring himself to hurt them, or even displease them for that matter. Whatever they asked for, he gave them, like the most honourable bestfriend. But Mandy never appreciated, and Billy was far too annoying. And the two together were simply insufferable. He was tired, all his energy lost with his daily efforts, and all he wanted was a good night's sleep. Billy was sleeping over at Mandy's, and he had somehow managed to slip out of it. He had the bedroom all to himself. What more could he want?

Until he was bashed in the head so hard, he thought he heard his skull crack. The exploding pain blinded him, and he was dazed. He tried shouting out, but someone had covered his mouth.

"Don't worry Grim...It'll be alright," a horridly familiar voice murmured in his ear.

Grim let out a muffled moan. He knew who that voice belonged to. Fear tore him from the inside, worse than the numbing pain in his head.

'I can't let him take me! I can't! I won't!' He thought in panic.

But it was too late. He had already slipped into unconsciousness...

How much time had passed since the event? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days?

The pain woke him, throbbing menacingly in his bruised skull where he had been hit. He twisted and moaned, the cold floor beneath him freezing his bones. He tried to open his eyes, but felt sick when he caught a glimpse of the light.

"Aahh, so you're finally awake, Grim," the voice that tortured his ears spoke: "I was beginning to get tired of waiting."

Finding the courage he never wanted, he opened his eyes, and his nightmares were confirmed. Boogey stood facing him from above, grinning maliciously at his prey: "Oh how easy it is to kidnap you, Grim. You were always so easy, and even now as a supposedly powerful grim reaper, you are still easy."

Grim tried answering back but found that he was gagged. He also realised that he was tied up with evil vines that dug their thorns into his unprotected bones whenever he tried to move.

"Don't bother," Boogey said, kneeling down beside him: "Your end is near..."

He realised where he had been taken now. The Underworld's darkest corner, dedicated to merciless torture and macabre death. The floor was cold and dank, the walls tall and crowded with chains and instruments of torture. From this place, there was no escape...

'Please, please let me go. You've hurt me enough, now please just release me!' Grim inwardly begged, his pleading eyes desperate for mercy. But Boogey just laughed.

"Such fear..." he mocked, stroking Grim's cheek with false gentleness: "It will be over soon, dear friend...but for now, you must suffer!"

The blow came before he could brace himself. The bloodstained, rusty mace was smashed repeatedly into his bound body. His muffled screams went unheard, echoing off the walls that had tired of seeing endless similar situations. Boogey thrived in his enemy's pain, the sound of cracking bones like music to his ears. By the time he was done, Grim was shattered and broken. His body had never experienced this kind of pain. It made him go insane, made him beg for death.

"Aawww, is Grimmy gonna cry?" Boogey asked mockingly, happily watching the tears slip down Grim's tortured face, over the hideous bruises that contrasted hideously with the pallor of his skull.

With all the beatings, his gag had loosened and slipped down, freeing his mouth.

"...Why?! Why are y-you...d-doing this...t-to m-me?!" He moaned, his voice choked with tears and agony.

Boogey let out a laugh that rang throughout the room. It was tinged with spite, dripping with poison, hovering on the edge of madness.

"HATRED! I HATE YOU SO MUCH! I LOATHE EVERY SINGLE BONE IN YOUR WORTHLESS BODY! I CAN'T STAND YOU! THE VERY SIGHT OF YOU MAKES ME SICK! I HATE YOU SO MUCH I JUST WANT TO KILL YOU IN THE MOST PAINFUL, GRISLY AND GORY DEATH POSSIBLE!" He thundered, rage forcing his eyes to pop out and become bloodshot.

He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, doing his best to calm down. Slowly, he paced around Grim's whimpering, broken figure, listening to the soft crying.

"Once I kill you, I will become the grim reaper, and I will reign over the entire universe! I will dominate every living creature's nightmares and make them come true! I will become fear itself! And you, you will be forgotten! Because nobody loves you Grim! Nobody ever did, and guess what? Nobody ever will!"

'My scythe...I trusted it with her...She'll save me...I know she will! She would never leave me here...never...' Grim clung on to his last shred of hope, the tiny ray of light that shone through the darkness.

"It's over. DIE!" Boogey raised a sharp, gigantic axe over his head, ready to chop Grim's bones into crumbs. But suddenly, a fierce light from another dimension blasted through the air. The rip in the space time continuum grew wider, and out of the swirling light, an elegant figure emerged...


	2. Chapter 2

She took a wary step forward and glared icily at Grim's captor. Her usually sweet face was set in a cold and hard expression, and rage mixed with significant hints of fear made her hold her ground. She was not alone though. In her delicate hands, she gripped the magical scythe, whose powers had created an opening that led from her world to theirs.

"What's this? Who might you be?" Boogey asked curiously, staring at the girl with much interest. The human girl couldn't have been more than 20, though her heart-shaped face made her look even younger.

And the scythe, what on earth was she doing with the scythe?! How had she come by it?!

The girl suddenly caught sight of her beloved Grim lying bound and broken on the ground. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, and as soon as her eyes met his hollow, begging ones, she felt a wild rush of nausea clogging her throat. She felt dizzy, her head was spinning, and the mere sight of him lying so helplessly before her (and in such a cruel state) made her legs begin to wobble like jelly. Her eyes were clear windows that displayed her sudden ghastly shock. It was a trauma she knew would haunt her for years to come...

And yet, this was still just the prelude to her battle.

"Agh! G-Gr-rim-m?! W-what...w-what h-happ-pened t-to you?!" she stammered weakly.

"Oh I see! You must be his girlfriend! You look so pale, you're almost the same colour as his bones! Or the colour they were before I bruised them, that is," Boogey laughed evilly.

"Fran...Francesca...H-help me!" Grim cried, moaning from the agony his effort had caused him.

"Francesca, hm? I already don't like you, kid. I do wonder why..." Boogey circled around her: "Perhaps it's because you're a close friend of my worst enemy...Or it could be because you just ruined the perfect moment I had of killing him!"

Francesca kept her eyes fixed on the demon, gripping the scythe so hard her knuckles turned bone white.

"I was this close to ending his worthless existence, but you just had to come along, uninvited, and ruin my plans, didn't you?!" Boogey went on angrily.

"You...you dare do this to...to him?!" She stuttered fiercely: "Beast! You demon!"

"Why yes, tell me something I don't know," Boogey waved her off: "And you're a mere mortal, a weakling of the Earth. Foolish little brat, your willingness is pathetic!"

"I'll tell you something you don't know, you're going down!" She raged.

"Oooooo I'm soooo scared...Puh-lease girly, give me a break! You think you're gonna defeat me just 'cause you've got old Grimmy's scythe?! Laughable! I'll bet you don't even know how to swing it!" He mocked.

"Are you blind?! I just used it to come here from another dimension! The hell makes you think I can't use it to slice you in pieces?!" Francesca spat.

"My dear...do you know who I am?" Boogey stepped closer and closer, until he was standing right infront of her: "I am the Boogeyman, the epitome of fear! I have hated your precious, bony friend ever since 6th grade! I swore to make his life hell, and I swear to you, that I will not stop until I succeed in destroying everything he loves!"

"Sicko...Why do you hate Grim? What did he ever do to you?" Francesca shook as she spoke, never once taking her eyes of Boogey, just in case he made a sudden move.

Boogey laughed: "Oh how silly you are! You obviously have no idea what life in the Underworld is like, do you?! We demons don't need any reason to hate, hurt and destroy!"

"Well I got a pretty damn good reason to hate, hurt and destroy YOU anyway! If you don't hand him over I'll just have to get him myself! Either way...I am not leaving here without him!" She said bravely.

"Francesca...be c-careful...!" Grim called out to her.

"Don't worry Grim! I'll be sure to take good care of your girlfriend...teeheehee," Boogey cackled.

"Shut up and fight!" Francesca growled, dropping into a fighting stance.

"I can sense your worst fear, my girl...And I must say you're doing a very good job of hiding it! But I'm the Boogeyman, and I know what everyone fears! Your greatest fears are-" he swung the axe towards her and she threw herself back, her eyes wide with shock: "- pain".

"Yeah well it won't stop me from crushing you!" Francesca felt frightened that he knew one of her greatest fears, and in a fully-equipped room for making it happen!

"Spiders...Hmhm, I don't like those things either!"

Boogey aimed the axe at her head, but she lifted the scythe and stopped it midair.

"Ghosts and ghouls...how perfectly ironic! Anyone ever tell you your boyfriend is the real Grim Reaper?"

"Shut up!" Francesca was getting sick of Boogey's taunts. She didn't want Grim to know how she felt about him...but at the same time, she wished he did.

"Imperfection. You are already imperfect my dear," he pointed at her glasses: "I can help you there..."

He dipped the axe beneath her scythe and crashed the handle into her head, sending her flying across the room and skidding onto the floor. He had used the handle purposely so as not to kill her yet.

Her glasses flew off and landed on the ground a few meters away. She couldn't see well, but she saw him approaching her.

"And..." Boogey prepared for the final strike: "Losing...Grim...!"

Francesca managed to roll away before the axe sliced the ground like it was butter. She was panting now, dizzy from the blow and somewhat blind.

"Losing Grim! How pathetic! Oh please, seriously girl, losing Grim of all the losers!" Boogey laughed wildly, as if he had just been told a comic joke.

Grim was listening to every word, and the pain bit his heart, ripping it to shreds. He could barely stand to look at her, the one person he cared so much about. The one person he trusted, the one being he loved more than he could ever show.

"You don't want him! He's useless! Utterly worthless, good-for-nothing, foolish, stupid, cowardly wannabe! Not that it matters, I'll kill you anyway, right before his eyes just before I kill him!" Boogey gripped his axe, watching the faint blood trickle gently down the handle.

Francesca stiffened, turning red. She couldn't even bare to look Grim in the face. Her feelings had been exposed. She raised a hand to her head injury and withdrew it, staring bluntly at the crimson liquid that coated her fingers. The hand holding the scythe hung loosely by her side.

"You have many fears...but that last one, there is no doubt, it is your greatest," Boogey muttered.

"Grim..." Francesca whispered.

"I should kill you, right now, shouldn't I?" Boogey wasted no time in bringing out his axe once more: "Come now, let me kill you nice and slow!"

"Grim...?" Francesca called out a little louder this time.

"Yes?" He asked weakly.

"I...I l-love...y-you...," she said before dropping dead on the ground.

"Hahahahahahahaa! Looks like I didn't need to finish her off after all! She was so pathetically weak!" Boogey laughed victoriously.

"No! Francesca!" Grim yelled, struggling agonisingly against his bonds.

"Yes, Grim, she's dead! And you can't bring her back! Your powers are useless if you can't use your hands, and now I'll just finish you off as I was going to before I was rudely interrupted by your irritating girlfriend!" Boogey raised the axe, but suddenly he was grabbed from behind and thrown across the room wirh such force that the axe flew out of his hand!

"Francesca! Y-you...you're alive!" said Grim.

"I've had just about enough of you, Boogeyman! I faked my death to throw you off guard!" Francesca explained as she picked up the axe: "If you think I would let myself die and leave Grim at your mercy, you're dumber than I thought!"

Boogey crept back, eyeing her weapons with worry. He tried to get up and maybe grab something from the crude ones that hung on the wall but Francesca dashed forward and plunged the axe downwards!

Boogey realised that the situation was inescapable and that he had no chance. It was better to retreat than stay and get killed. And so, he warped away before the axe tore him in half!

He was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Francesca stared at the spot where the Boogeyman had stood only seconds ago. She hadn't killed him, but she had certainly succeeded in banishing him!

Quickly finding and putting her glasses back on, she ran towards Grim. Her heart was beating madly in her chest, and she felt as though she would never reach him. But she did, and she sank down onto her knees beside him.

"Grim...!" She gently lifted him in her arms, fighting back her tears. It was a worse fight than the one with Boogey.

"Unh...Fr-Francesca...You...did it...!" Grim moaned, enjoying the touch of her hand caressing his bruised skull.

"Y-yeah, I-I did huh..." Francesca sniffled. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears for much longer. Taking the scythe, she gently cut off the vines that bound him, releasing him.

"Th-thanks," he said weakly. But he couldn't stand the pain. He twisted in the unbearable agony, crying as he tried to withstand the wild throbbing in his damaged bones.

Unable to take it anymore, Francesca felt her own tears roll down her cheeks, dripping down her chin. She cradled him in her arms, desperately trying to calm him down.

At that moment, anyone would have wondered which was the greater and more insufferable agony: the emotional one in her heart or the physical one in his body.

"It's gonna be okay," she whispered, gently stroking his face: "I promise!"

"I...I hope so..." He murmured.

"I...I didn't rescue you to watch you die! I won't live without you, ever! I need you!" She confessed shamelessly.

Grim gazed at her, the one being that really and truly meant everything to him. He watched her crying for him, bleeding for him. Her heart was breaking, he could almost feel her pain too.

"Grim...I...um..." She was desperate to confess her deepest feelings. What if he died, here in her arms, never knowing how she truly felt?

"What is it?...Tell me," he encouraged her, trying to hold her hand.

She was silent for a moment, too emotional to utter a word. But then...

"...I love you," she whispered.

He smiled, as he always did whenever he received some rare form of affection. He had known it, but listening to those three beautiful words made him forget his pain. He had been hated, insulted, bullied, threatened, messed with all his life. But here, after all those thousands of years was one person who was risking her life to protect him, telling him she loved him, crying for his pain...

"I...love you s-so much...dammit, it's more than I can bear! You're supposed to be 'evil', yet you never harm anyone, and I c-can tell...all you ever really wanted, was someone t-to love you, didn't you?" She said between sobs.

"Perhaps...you're right...and I...I love you too...Francesca..." Grim murmured.

She gasped, barely able to believe what she had just heard. He loved her too?! She had always known he liked her way more than any other person, but love her? This was too good!

"Y-you...you love me...too?!" she asked bewildered.

"Yes...I do...I promise, I'm telling you the truth..." said Grim.

Francesca smiled weakly and felt her heart splitting in two. She should be happy, happy that he loved her too. But instead, she felt as though she would die of pain. It was all too much to take in, too much to bear...

"Um...I'll take you home...come dear," she said as she picked up his scythe. Placing him gently on the ground, she tore an opening through the air that gave way to another dimension and their destination: home in Endsville.

"Come with me," she whispered, lifting him up in her arms. Together, they passed through the portal and disappeared.

A few seconds later, they stepped out into Billy's bedroom. It was 2 o' clock in the morning, and a heavy silence hung in the air.

"Don't worry, I'll help you," Francesca said as she gently helped him get into bed.

He lay his head down on the soft pillow and let her cover him with the quilt. Nervously, she lay down beside him on top of the quilt, resting her chin on her hand. He closed his eyes and relaxed while she massaged his sore arm, careful not to thread on any of the vicious, violet bruises.

"Thanks for saving me..." He whispered, smiling sweetly at her.

That smile made her heart soar. She felt so much in love, she couldn't resist not grinning cheekily.

"It was nothing," she said shyly: "Um...say, who was that guy?"

"His name is Boogey, and he's been holding a grudge against me since we were just kids," Grim explained: "He hated me so much, he seemed to have been born simply for the purpose of hating me! He made my life hell, and even now he strives to do everything in his power to break me. His hobby is torturing me..."

"Man...how sick..." Francesca admitted. How could anyone be so unnecessarily evil?! I mean, okay, he was a demon an' all, but so was Fred Fredburger! Geez!

"Everyone in the Underworld hates me!" Grim said exasperatedly: "They all hate my guts! They join forces with him to bring me down! It's not fair! He turned every friend I had against me, and-and-!" But he couldn't go on. He just broke down crying and sobbing.

"Aaaww, Grim...!" Francesca cooed, placing her gentle arms around him: "It's okay, it's okay now, I love you. I always did and I always will! I'll be everything you were always deprived of: love, care, friendship, protection, anything! You name it! I'll never stop being there for you!"

Shakily, Grim stopped crying and looked up at her. Her head was still bleeding ever so slightly, but she appeared to have forgotten about the pain. In reality, she hadn't, but she was putting him first.

And he had never appreciated anything more in all the thousands of years he had existed.

"Y-you, you must be in pain, aren't you?" He asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter," Francesca put up her hand to feel the nasty wound, a bleeding crack in the side of her head: "Its not much."

"I...I appreciate your help. I'm grateful for everything you've done for me..." Grim said nervously: "I've never felt this way about anyone before...A love so deep, so precious..."

"Me neither...I just wanna spend time with you...I just wanna hear your voice, see your face, touch your bones...You're beyond beautiful, in every darn way..." She admitted huskily. They had crept extremely close to each other, so close they were almost touching...

Grim lifted his sore hand and cupped her blood-stained cheek, gazing fondly yet somewhat nervously into her pretty eyes. They were dark, but held such affection in them.

She edged a little closer, brushing her lips against his. She was trembling, and he was shy, but eventually, they started to kiss. The touch of his tongue wrapping around hers was sweet and promising. How she had dreamt of this moment, when she would be lucky enough to share her passion with Grim!

They were holding eachother fondly. It was paradise! She kissed every part of him she could reach, and he stroked her beautiful, silky hair. He moaned when she stroked his ribcage, and she gasped when he pulled her closer.

It was beautiful. They were lost in eachother's love. Grim had never felt more happy, more comfortable, more relaxed. He just relished the sweet love pouring from her heart, his pain all forgotten.

"I love you..." She murmured, her face buried in his chest.

"I love you too," he muttered, closing his eyes: "I love you too..."


End file.
